Less glass-hammer, more sledgehammer

I'm getting my head around building lists with the new codex. I've put together the following after a recent game where a slightly different variation on it managed a solid victory over a pretty nasty necron list. I'd be interested in peoples thoughts.

The Virid Blush (1500pts)
Dark Eldar Combined Arms Detachment

HQ
Archon, Blaster, Haywire Grenades, Shadow field, The Armour of Misery, Webway portal

Troops
Kabalite Warriors, 10x Kabalite Warriors, 1x Dark Lance
Kabalite Warriors, 10x Kabalite Warriors, 1x Dark Lance

Heavy Support
Voidraven Bomber
Voidraven Bomber

Haemonculus Covens Formation

Formation: Dark Artisan
Cronos, Spirit Probe
Haemonculus, Webway portal
Talos, Twin-linked heat lance

Formation: Grotesquerie
Grotesques x 5
Grotesques x 5
Haemonculus, Webway portal



The Archon is warlord and rolls on Strategic traits in the BRB hoping for reserve manipulation. He joins a squad of grotesques and hides in the webway with the other grotesque + haem squad and the dark artisan formation. The Kabalites deploy as hidden as they can manage. My experience with the grotesque and Dark Artisan units so far indicates that they're not going to go away once they hit the board, so I just have to make sure the kabalites don't all die on turn 1 and I should be good to go.

I would be concerned about reserves in this. If you came across a GK nemesis formation or drop pod list, anything that can deepstrike first turn, they are going to wipe those kabalites and its going to be a bad day. It strikes me as a very expensive list for not much!

Maybe switch the warriors to squads of 5, pop them in a venom and give them a blaster if you can? Bit of a point stretch but would give them a bit better survivability!

Hoping for reserve manipulation is not great. I would assume you are always going to have standard reserves and play to suit.

Once you are on the table though I think you could have some fun!

TBH, If I know I'm facing pods or the like, I'll probably reverse my deployment, keeping the kabalites off the table and castling up the heavy hitters around a tasty objective. You may be right about a couple of transports however, the mobility will be useful in that scenario..

You're right that it is a very expensive list, but those big units are obscenely durable. In the previous battle the Dark Artisan formation weathered four rounds of shooting from 40 necrons (rapidly decreasing as the turns progressed), 2 annihilation barges and a couple of flying croissants (can't actually remember the name?). At the end of the game it only had two wounds on it from all of that. The Grotesques did similarly well, but were targeted by more str 4 than str 7. So I don't feel entirely concerned about dropping that many points on them.

Haha no flying croissant is the correct name the coven stuff us durable, until you face tau that is! But I would still recommend squeezing in some transports. In my experience 20 warriors on foot is a lot less effective then 10 in a transport or even 5 in a venom!

Expensive lists are fine, you just have to use them well, sinking points into coven stuff seems sensible to me, but there is a big old risk to running that many reserves. That sort of list you want everything in turn 2 for maximum effect, but risk is fun so why not!

Grub wrote:

risk is fun so why not!

My thoughts exactly!

Have you thought about using 3 groups of warriors in venoms instead?  The venom gives you an invul save and 3 (or 6) targets are more likely to survive first round than 2 (or 4).  That would also give you double the splinter shots.  

I don't have the book in front of me, but I *think* that's only a 3 point difference.

Hey Clively, It's a nice idea, but I think the math is way off. The ten man squad with Dark Lance is 100 points, a five man squad in a venom (with two cannons) comes in at 105. I could probably squeeze 10 points out elsewhere, but I'd only manage the two squads not three. Still, I'm feeling the transport vibe. It's a tricky one.. I'll sleep on it and see what I come up with.